William james thomas



(No Model.)

W. J. THOMAS.

' CABLE RAILWAY GRIP.

No. 367,467. Patented Aug. 2, 1887.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

\VILLIAM JAMES THOMAS, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR TO HENRYROOT, OF SAME PLACE.

CABLE-RAILWAY GRIP.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 367,467, dated August2, 1887.

Application filed May 2-2, 1885. Serial No. 166,408.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it k no wn that I, WILLIAM JAMES THOMAS, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing in the city and county of San Francisco, State ofCalifornia, have invented a new and useful Automatic Gable-RailroadGrip, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in cable-railway grips in which aleveris placed over the bottom fulcrum-pin and isheld down bya pinworking in a slot, said pin being operrated by a slide-bar that israised up bya projection on the channel-rail. I attain the desiredresults by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, inwhich- Figure l is the side view ofagrip with the automatic attachment.Fig. 2 is the end view of a grip, showing a sectional cut of theprojection 011 the channel-rail, also showing the attachment on bothsides of the grip. Fig. 3 is an enlarged side view of the attachmentwhen locked, and Fig. 4. is a side view showing the attachment when itis in operation.

Similar letters refer to similar parts through-.

out the several views.

The regular fulcrum-pin,H, to which are secured the lower ends of theordinary links connecting the usual hand operating lever, wit-h thefixed frame of the grip, works in a slot in said frame, and is heldrigidly therein by a hook-shaped lever, G, pivoted on a pin, J, the saidlever G being normally held down, as shown in Fig. 1, by a pin, F,adjustable in a slot, E, in the frame by the action of an an gle-slot ina slide, D.

When the grip comes to a place where it is required to let go of thecable, the slide D is raised up by the projection on the channel A, whenthe pin F is forced forward in the slot E by the angle slot in the slideD,which leaves the lever G free to turn on the pin J. After the lever Gis free, the lug B on the center portion of the grip comes in contactwith the raised projection on the channel-rail A,which (N0 model.)

lifts the center portion of the grip up, thus releasing the rope orcable. After the rope or cable is out of the grip, the grip is to closeitself a ain to prevent the rope from getting in the grip again, and inorder to do this the locking device locks itself again, the weightof thecenter portion of the grip bringing it down again, the lever G fallsdown again, the pin F being held back by the arm of the lever G, (marked1,) and when the lever G is down again the pin F is brought back againby the angular slot in the slide D. This device will also open the gripand pickup the rope at any given point and close with the weight of thecenter portion of the grip on the rope, which is sufficient to hold ituntil the grip is tightened by the gripman.

WVhat I claiin as my invention, broadly,and desire to secure by LettersPatent, is-

1. In a grip for a cable railway, a movable fulcrum-pin in the fixedframe of the grip, in combination wit-h holding and releasingdeviccs,andaswell or stop upon the track, whereby the grip may be automaticallyreleased without movement of the operating-lever, substantially as setforth.

2. The combination, with the fixed frame of the grip, of a movablefulcrnm-pin,aswe1l or stop upon the track, a lug upon the mov' ablepart, and automatic latching and unlatching devices to automaticallyrelease the grip without movement ofthe operating-lever, substantiallyas set forth.

3. The combination, with the fixed and movable frames of the grip,ofthemovable fulcrum, the slide D, the latch or lever G, the pin F, anddevices to lift the movable part by engagement with the track,substantially as described;

YVILLIAM JAMES THOMAS.

\Vitnesses:

ERNEST Brass, .T. E. KIPP.

